The Bossier banner., 1887-10-20

gave our own land first to civil liberty
and afterward to religious freedom.
Yea, may go further back and say it
was persecution that gave the world the
great salvation of the Gospel. The
rihald mockery, the hungering and thirst
ing, the unjust trial and ignominious
death, where all the force of hell's fury
was hurled against the cross, was the
introduction of that religion which is yet
to be the earth's deliverance from guilt
and suffering, and her everlasting en-
throne ment among the principalities of
Heaven.
The State has sometimes said to the
Church: "Come, let me take your hand
and l will help YOU" What has been the
result? The Church has gone back and
has lost its estate of holiness and has be-
come ineffective. At other times the State
has said to the Church: 81 will crush
you" Wha. has been the result? After
the storms have spent their fury the
Church, so far from having lost any of its
force, has increased and is worth infinitely
more after the assault than before it.
The Church is far more indebted to the
opposition of civil government than to it's
approval. The fires of the stake have
only been the torches which Christ held in
his hand by the light of which the Church
has marched toher present position. In the
sound of racks and implements of torture 1
hear the rumbling of the wheels of the
gospel chariot. Scaffolds of martyrdom
have been the stairs by which the Church
has assembled. Aquafortis is the best test
of pure gold.
Furthermore, our subject impresses us
that sins will come to exposure. Long,
long ago had these brothers sold Joseph
to Egypt. They had suppressed the crime,
and it was profound secret, we'll kept by
the brothers. But suddenly the secret is
out. The old father hears that his son is
in Egypt, having been sold there by the
malice of his own brothers. How their
cheeks must have burned and their hearts
sunk at the flaming out of this suppressed
crime. The smallest iniquity has a
thousand tongues, and they will blab out
an exposure.
Saul was sent to destroy the Canaanites,
their sheep and their oxen. But when he
got down there among the pastures he saw
some fine sheep and oxen too fat to kill,
and so he thought he would steal them.
He drove them towards home, but stopped
to report to the prophet how we'll he had
executed his commission, when in the dis
tance the sheep began to bleat and the
oxen to below. The secret was out, and
Samuel said to the blushing and con-
founded Saul:
Wheat means the bleating of the sheep that
hear and the lowing Of the cattle.
Aye, my hearers, you can not keep an
iniquity quiet. At just the wrong time
the sheep will bleat and the oxen will bel
low. Achan can not steal the Pabylonsh
garment without getting stoned to DEATH
nor Benedict Arnold betray his country
without having his neck stretched. Look
over the police arrests-these thieves,
these burglars, these adulterers, these
counterfeiters, these highwaymen, these
assassins. They all thought they could
bury their iniquity so deep down that it
would never come to resurrection. But
there was some shoe that answered to the
print in the sand, some false keys found
in possession, some bloody knife that
whisperedlof the deed, and the public indig- =
nation and the anathema of outraged law
hurled him into the Tombs or hoisted him
on the gallows.
At the close of the battle between the
Dauphin of France and. the Helvetians,
Burchard Monk was so elated with the
victory that he lifted his helmet to look
off upon the field, when a wounded soldier
hurled stone that struck his uncovered
forehead and he fell. Sin will always
leave some point exposed, and there is no
safety in iniquity. Francis the First, King
of France, was discussing how it was best
to get his army into Italy. Amaril, the
court fool, sprang out from the corner and
said to the King and his staff officers
"You had better be thinking how you will
get your army back out of Italy after
once you have entered"
In other words, it is easier for us to get
into sin than to get out of it.
Whitefeld was riding on horseback
in lonely way with some missionary
| money in a sack fastened to the
| saddle-bags. A highwayman sprang out
| from the thicket and put his hand out to.
ward the gold, when Whitefield turned
| upon him and said: "That belongs to the
Lord Jesus Christ; touch it if you dare,"
and the william fell back empty handed
into the thicket. 0, the power of con-
| science! If offended it becomes Gods
avenging minister. Do not think that
you can hide any great and protracted sin
| in your hearts. In an unguarded moment
| it will slip off of the lip, or some slight oc-
| casion may for moment set ajar this
door of hell that you wanted to keep
| closed. But suppose that in this life you
| hide it, and you get along with that trans.
gression burning in your heart, as ship
on fire within for days may hinder the
flame from bursting out by keeping down
the hatchways, yet at last, in the judg-
| ment, that iniquity will blaze out before
| the throne Of God and the universe.
Furthermore, learn from this subject the
| inseparable connection between all events
| however remote. Lord Hastings was be-
headed one year after he had caused the
death of the Queens children, in the very
month, the very day, the very hour and
the very moment. There is wonderful
! precision in the Divine judgments. The
! universe is only one thought of God.
Those things which seem fragmentary and
| isolated are only different parts of that
| one great thought. How far apart seemed
| these two events-Joseph sold to the
Arabian merchants and the rulership of
Egypt. Yet you see in what mysterious
way God connected the two in one plan.
So all events are linked together. You
who are aged can look back and group
| together a thousand things in your life
that once seemed isolate. One un-
divided chain of events reached from
/ tho 10 rdo 1f 90